HELP!!!! MY WATER PARAMS ARE CRAZY!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
WyldFya;896632; said:
Detectable levels of nitrite and ammonia are commonly seen. I have worked at several aquarium shops ranging from small private to corporate. I have worked with 1000s of customer tanks, hundreds of friends tanks, and all of my tanks. With the standard filtration provided from most fish stores, it is not enough filtration. .25 or less is often seen, and is only a sign that the filtration media can't keep up. In tanks with proper filtration, that is where you need to worry when ammonia and nitrite start to show up. But it is by no mean uncommon.
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it looks like both of us have a lot of experience in the hobby both at home and at work, but we have seen different things out there.

we agree to disagree :)

personally, I know customers love to overfeed their tanks when we are not there servicing them, so this might be part of why you are seeing so much nitrite out there. Too much food (esp rotting) places a lot of extra load on the biofilter and might explain why normal filtration and tank maintenance are not keeping up with the nitrite produced in the tank.

In all my years, I rarely saw readable nitrite in established, stable tanks. You did.

you learn something new every day!:)
 
I blame both poor knowledges out there (chain petstores) and poor filters. Far too many people are using whisper filters to run a 55 gallon tank.
 
oscars? more then one? whats all in the tank. sounds like your over stocked tank is over loading the bio filter. keep doing water changes to keep your water in check.

none of my cycled tanks never had any ammonia or nitrites unless something wrong happend like a dead fish or a filter that stopped working.
 
None of my tanks have had amonia or nitrites readings. You have a slight overload and the system could not cope with all the amonia which is constantly being produced.
The taking out of the plants ( they feed on amonia, nitrites and nitrates ) has helped also to worsen the situation.

Anyway, with the low PH you have, Amonia is not toxic.
 
ok well i have great news
the params r getting better
i cleaned my filter media
and that made big difference

the params now r
pH 6.5
Nitrates 50 mg/l
nitrites 0.3 mg/l
ammonia/ammonium .25 mg/l to 0

so i think one more water change will do the trick
 
thanks everyone for the help...
appreciate it
 
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